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User talk:Bernib
Welcome Hi, welcome to UK Housing Wiki! Thanks for your edit to the User:Bernib page. If you need help, and there are no local admins here, you may want to visit the forums on the Community Central Wiki -- Uberfuzzy (Talk) 17:45, 2010 March 27 tower blocks While some tower blocks are dirty rundown neglected buildings, they do house a lot of people. In the 60's when most of them were built, they used to have a sense of community among the residents using certain areas of the block to meet up and socialise, but this has gone by the wayside now, today, this would be a great way to meet and make new friends within your neighbourhood. I remember Hillcroft House at the Maypole when in 2002 when they had a huge fire which destroyed the foyer and the blocks lighting and electrics and many residents were sent to bed and breakfasts and hotels paid for by the housing department until the blocks electrics were repaired. For a few years after that, the foyer and fire damaged parts were left unrepaired, the walls were black with smoke, the ceiling in the foyer was open and cables and wires exposed and drooping down as well, a paradise for any vandal that wanted some fun as the wires and cables were within easy reach of hands, and the communal doors and windows were smashed and broken still. You could guarantee that most nights and days the lift and communal downstairs area were flooded with urine, either human or dog, and some residents used to put paper and cardboard down to mop it up, i had to tiptoe through it as there was no other way round the stuff, picking up and carrying my young daughter of the time so she wouldnt step in it. Back in 2000, until then the block was a lovely block to live in, no trouble or vandalism whatsoever, the drugs brigage moved in, non resident but targeted successfully most flats in the block, not just taking what they wanted, but excrementing and trashing the place as well, they were untouchable, the police just couldnt catch them, i was in my flat when they tried to target mine, i was 6 months pregnant at the time and had some black bags full of baby things i had bought, as i was in bed at the time, i ignored the knock at my door, so they assumed i was out, and tried to break the door down until i shouted out, and they vanished, the police wouldnt come out as i hadnt got a picture of them. I had to secure my door best i could and leave the block overnight as i was too afraid to stay there. Finally in a raid in 2001 they were caught, some of them lived in the area. Druids Heath tower blocks were then managed by the TMC, Druids Heath tennant management co-operative but it was voted that the estate go back to the council after the annual vote in 2005. By that year i was in a different block anyway, Hillcroft House then started renovating the block, putting new lifts in, and furnishing all the empty flats to provide temporary accommodation for needy and homeless people, I had a good few years in Hillcroft when i moved in back in 1996, Hillcroft being at its best in those days. Most the Maypole blocks were earmarked for demolition in the mid 2000's but as i said prior, they decided to do them up and let them out to the homeless and needy cases, i think Parker House being another one, which was being cleared out originally,, the tennants being moved out, the block stood three quarters empty, but i still believe the nicer blocks are on the Bells Lane side.